7 Most Popular Japanese Movies in 2018 –– Movie Recommendation

As we all know now, your girl is a big nerd. When it comes to movies, tv shows and books – particularly books – I geek out and get all excited. And lately, I find myself getting obsessed with Japanese movies and have been watching them non-stop, back to back.

Which is why, in this post today, I am going to list down the top 10 most popular Japanese movies of 2018 that is a must watch . Also including a bonus movie, which is a personal favorite of mine. I want to share all this excitement with you, and – probably also – pull you in to join me on a bingewatching phase. *laughs*

1. Shoplifters

Genre : Drama, Crime

Starring : Lily Franky, Mayu Matsuoka, Sakura Ando

BLURB :

Somewhere in Tokyo, Osamu Shibata and his wife Nobuyo live in poverty. While Osamu receives occasional employment and Nobuyo has a low-paying job, the family relies in large part on the grandmother’s pension. As he is shoplifting for groceries with his son, Shota, they discover Yuri, a homeless girl. Osamu takes her home, where the family observes evidence of abuse. Despite their strained finances, they informally adopt her.

2. Tonight, At Romance Theater

Genre : Romance, Fantasy

Starring : Kentaro Sakaguchi, Haruka Ayase, Go Kato

BLURB :

2017. An old man being treated in a hospital is always clinging to what appears to be a screenplay for a film. When a young nurse, Amane, asks him, “What’s it about?” he bashfully begins to tell the story. “It’s a magical tale of a young man…”

1960. Makino Kenji is an Assistant Director at a film studio. He dreams of one day becoming a director, but all he does now is run errands. Kenji’s outlet and secret pleasure is watching his favorite old romantic movie at the theater — an old black & white treasure that only showed for a brief period before being cancelled.
But the film’s heroine, a princess named Miyuki, was the love of his life.

One day, the director of the movie calls and says he wants to buy the old reel of film. The owner of the theater agrees to sell it, despite Kenji’s protests.

“This will be the last showing…”

But then something miraculous happens. Following a clap of thunder, the heroine of the movie literally jumps off the screen…in black and white!

She’s breathtakingly beautiful and equally strong-willed, just like Princess Miyuki in the film!
Miyuki is mesmerized by the colorful world she has landed in, but causes nothing but trouble for Kenji. “Why did she appear in this world?” Kenji wonders, while indulging the princess’ every whim. In time, he does fall in love with the real Miyuki, but she is harboring a secret that she cannot reveal…

3. Maquia : When the Promised Flower Blooms

Genre : Drama, Anime, High Fantasy

Starring : Manaka Iwami, Tomokazu Sugita, Ai Kayano

BLURB :

The story begins with Maquia, who is from a family where all the members stop aging in their mid teens. She has no parents and, although her days are peaceful, she feels lonely. Their peace is shattered when an army invades, seeking the secret to her people’s immortality.

Leilia, the most beautiful girl in her clan, is taken away, and the boy Maquia has secret feelings for disappears. Maquia is able to escape, but she loses her friends and her home. Wandering alone in the forest, she finds Erial, a baby boy who has lost his parents. The story follows the changing relationship between the two as Erial grows up and Maquia does not.

4. Bungou Stray Dogs : Dead Apple

Genre : Action, Anime

Starring : Mamoru Miyano, Hiroshi Kamiya, Yoshimasa Hosoya

BLURB :

Power users around the world are suddenly committing suicide one after another, in all cases after a strange fog appears at the scene. At a request from Ango Sakaguchi, the Armed Detective Agency head out to investigate Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, a power user who calls himself “collector”, and a man suspected of being tied to the incident.

5. Call Boy

Genre : Erotica, Drama, Mature

Starring : Tori Matsuzaka, Sei Matobu, Ami Tomite

BLURB :

Morinaka Ryo, a bored university student who works in a bar. One day, Ryo meets Mido Shizuka, an owner of a members-only host bar, who was brought by Tajima Shinya, Ryo’s friend. Ryo starts working at Shizuka’s host bar. In the beginning, Ryo confuses the work as just “prostitute” but later noticed the depth of the secret desires that each woman has, and finds a sense of purpose there.

6. A Forest of Wool and Steel

Genre : Friendship, Youth, Music, Drama

Starring : Kento Yamazaki, Miura Tomokazu, Mone Kamishiraishi

BLURB :

When high school student Tomura Naoki met piano tuner Itadori Soichiro at his school in Hokkaido, he could smell the forest from the piano tuned by Soichiro. Touched, the boy decides to work together with Soichiro at his musical instruments store. Naoki develops relationships with many people related to the piano and he meets sister pianists and high school students Kazune and Yuni.

BONUS :

7. 8 Year Engagement

Genre : Drama, Romance

Starring : Takeru Satoh, Tao Tsuchiya, Kazuki Kitamura

BLURB :

Hisashi and Mai are set to have their wedding ceremony in 3 months, but Mai falls ill and lapses into a coma. Hisashi does not give up on his fiance and prays for her recovery. Finally, Mai wakes up, but she doesn’t have any memory of Hisashi.

~~ Based on the true story of Hisashi and Mai Nakahara.

Ps. This movie is published in 2017, but since I loved it so much, I decided to include this one in *wink*